As a kid we were all taught to “Stop, look, and listen” before crossing the street.  “Stop” before crossing, and possibly making a tragic mistake, without first gathering critical information.  “Look” at the situation to assess as much visual information as possible, primarily regarding the oncoming traffic.  “Listen” for auditory signals that may either complement the visual cues, or provide clues to dangers not readily visible.  Note: the warning is “Stop, look, and listen” NOT “Look, listen, and Stop.”  It’s critical that the “Stop” part come at the beginning.  Otherwise, it’s pointless.

In business today, as in life, it’s awfully hard to stop long enough to gather information before proceeding.  We tend to jump out in the street, trusting that our instincts will protect us, or that the oncoming traffic will avoid collision. This is especially true in small business marketing.  With the rapid proliferation of marketing tools and tactics, the temptation is strong to keep moving, looking and listening while we go, hoping to select the proper marketing tactics along the way.  We often expect that since we haven’t been in a “bad” accident yet, surely we’ll get better every time we cross the street.

Here’s the reality.  Every time we cross the street, without first looking and listening, we are increasing the statistical likelihood that we’ll get hit by an unsuspecting motorist.  Are you stopping along the way to look and listen for information to guide your marketing?  Or, are you running headlong into traffic?

On April 2, I’ll be hosting an interactive WORKshop to help small business owners stop, look, and listen.  Learn more at “Marketing Intervention – Stop the waste. Regain control!”

Keep chargin’

Are you working fast and furious? Burning the candle at both ends? Yet, you don’t feel like you are making progress. Years ago, before Stephen Covey wrote “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” I learned a very important lesson from an unlikely source.

While I still struggle every day to heed this sage advice, I’ll never forget it. Take five minutes to see what Snuffy taught me. I hope it helps you move ahead in all your endeavors.

Before you jump at the next great media deal placed in front of you, be sure to ask the right questions. And the right questions, must pertain to your specific needs. Testimonials of other media clients and stories of how well the media worked for others should not derail your evaluation process. Below is a quick video blog to help you stay focused when evaluating media opportunities. By the way, when I say “media” I mean any media – print, radio, web, networking, etc. These are all message delivery tactics. All of them can be effective, but only when used effectively!

I am sure you’ve heard it said that you need to know your audience. This is important because you’re able to communicate better to an audience you really know. But what does it really mean to know your audience and what can you do to learn about your audience?  Whether simply networking or building a complex advertising campaign, knowing your audience well is fundamental to success.

From a small business marketing point of view, knowing you audience has a lot to do with knowing their pains. What problems do they have in their life? Problems create needs. Needs your customers might not know they have. And when you know a person’s pains or needs and you can speak to that hurt by offering a solution to the pain. People will pay good money to have you solve their problems.

An easy exercise to gain some perspective on your audience is to create profiles of your customers. For example, if you’re in lawn care, your ideal customer is a homeowner who lives in a neighborhood where a high lawn standard has been set. But this is a person who does not enjoy yard work and also has the income level to pay a lawn service to do the work for them. Through a little forethought and research this type of customer profiling can be very effective in defining and knowing your audience.

Ask a lot of questions of those who are buying from you. Your current customers are an amazing source of information and knowledge into you audience. Ask them about why they use your product or service. Offer discounts for filling out surveys. Large corporations do this constantly. That is why your receipt is so long when you go to a large box store. Consider rewarding those who take time to provide feedback.

Last, be sure to test your knowledge. I am sure many of you think you know your audience and how to communicate to them. Have you tested that? No matter what form of communication you are using, always ask for feedback from someone who is in your ideal audience. Have them look at an ad and verbalize what the ad is saying to them. The same can be done with websites, brochures, and sales pitches.

It is key to put as much time, if not more, learning about your audience as you put into learning about your product or service.

Keep Chargin’ -PS

I can’t stay silent any longer. This is one of those small business topics that drive me crazy! While it is so simple to address, it is consistently left on the back burner. At least weekly, I speak with a small business owner or manager about their computer back-up system (or lack thereof). Not because I bring up the topic, but because they are wrestling with consequences of a computer system malfunction. If you have a dependable backup system for your business computers, good for you. Forward this message to someone who may not. I’m sure you know someone. If not, you are living on borrowed time.

Certainly, it’s not revolutionary to discuss computer backup systems. We all know the tremendous value of our data. We all know the significant time it would take to recreate lost documents if our files disappeared. Yet, many of us continue to postpone computer backup implementation. It’s not revolutionary to DISCUSS backup systems. What still seems revolutionary is for business owners and managers to actually HAVE a complete, reliable, remote backup system.

My friend and business associate, Del Hunter, president of CM/IT, a computer services company, regularly shares horror stories of his clients’ loss to hard drive crashes, lightning strikes, and other computer damage. He reminds his audiences that such losses could be avoided with simple backup systems. While his business recovers a lot of data from failed systems, I’m sure he’d rather spend more time helping business owners grow their technology capacity.

There are so many high-quality and dependable backup systems available today. There is no excuse for not having a remote back up system that virtually eliminates dependency on human management. The latest backup system services are cost-effective, redundant, remote, and nearly idiot proof. I happen to use

For $50 a year, all my data is stored remotely and is accessible 24/7. I’ve referred others to Carbonite and recently received a thank you note from someone whose system crashed not long after signing with Carbonite.

Whether you set up your own backup using Carbonite, call an expert like CM/IT, or use another system – the sooner you get your backup system in place, the better you’ll sleep at night! Everyday you delay implementing this critical business operation is a day that could literally change the direction of your business. Imagine that today, all your data was gone. Where would you start the process of rebuilding? How much would the data recovery/recreation process cost – directly and indirectly? Stop putting it off. Get it done. Sleep well.

Making the headlines in traditional media can be challenging. How many times have you sent a press release (I use “press release” rather than “news release”, because it is not news until printed by the press) to local media, eager to help them inform the community about something valuable for their readers or listeners? You know the drill. You are so excited about your business venture – a new product, service, employee, event sponsorship, etc. – and you are certain that if others knew about it, they would be excited as well. Yet your efforts to spread important news through local media fall on deaf ears. Your press release never makes it to print or into the newscast.

Just to be clear, this is not a slam on local media. It’s a reality check. The truth is local media is not your marketing firm. Their primary interest is not your business success – it’s the success of their business. In other words, if your press release does not “work” for them, they have no compelling reason to share your news. Therefore, all press releases should be compelling to the editor. They must have a hook – a connection with current news, issues, celebrity, or controversy. In other words, your press release must be newsworthy. A press release about your new ice cream flavor is not compelling. A press release about your new ice cream flavor that saves gas or influences global warming – now that’s compelling.

Traditional media is giving way to on-line publications and news sites. Many of these sites provide opportunity for users to submit content, even to the extent of writing the headlines and the stories. Check your local weekly or daily newspaper as well as popular radio stations. Many are offering ways for you to make the news in a new way.

One such on-line venue that I am very familiar with (I’m the publisher) is YourNews.com – Northern Colorado. At this site you may post your story, opinion, event announcement, or classified. All FREE and with pictures or video! In addition, your posting includes a web link back to your site, so readers can learn more about you and your organization or business. Here’s your opportunity to share your news AND direct visitors to your website. FREE.

Play this recording for a bit of hype about the new site.

It’s your turn to write the headlines – and the story!

Keep Chargin’

I’m in. Are you? For the past year or so, I’ve been a participant in the fastest growing on-line business network on the web. But, I was only dipping my toe. While I joined Linkedin at the invitation of a friend, I hadn’t taken the time to really understand its real value. In fact, I didn’t even know how the service actually worked.

It sounded cool – just post my profile, invite others to link to me, and before long I’d be connected to a huge network of business people. Then what? That’s what I learned last Friday, when I met Mike O’Neil, one of the top Linkedin members and a trainer on how to get the most from a Linkedin account.

The Linkedin system offers such potential it’s hard to explain. Let’s just say, Linkedin has become an employee recruting tool, a powerful sales and marketing aide, a global social organization, an information gathering gold mine, and on, and on – limited only by the imagination of its users.

It’s free. It’s growing. It’s the standard for on-line business networking. It’s time. Join at www.Linkedin.com.

If you are in Northern Colorado, I highly recommend several upcoming classes being conducted by Viveka von Rosen, General Manager at The Executive Center. She’s got this stuff down cold and teaches others how to make the most of Linkedin. Check out Viveka’s Linkedin profile today.

P.S. After you join, invite me to your network. I’d like to share my network with you!

100 participants. 97 opt-ins to my mailing list. 8 consulting jobs. 4 personal referrals for national speaking opportunities. All reslulting from four “free” marketing presentations I recently delivered to local chamber of commerces or other business organizations. And they say “talk is cheap.”

“Free” talks can be a powerful source of business and referrals. Is there a better way to directly and personally connect with your customers, prospects, and referral sources?

Don’t underestimate the value of the information you posess as a result of your years of experience and training. There is a huge market for well-packaged and professionally delivered information. You should regularly seek out opportunities to share your knowledge. Sometimes it will pay directly, other times indirectly. It will always expand your identity and influence like nothing else can.

Do you have information that would be valuable to small business owners and managers? Is there a topic that you need to know more about? Post your offer or request here, in the comments box. We’ll work to either provide opportunities for you to share your expertise or to learn from others.

What do you say?

This week was one of my most invigorating in recent memory.  I delivered marketing training to three different organizations – a business women’s network, a local chamber of commerce marketing group, and a seminar audience of networking group members.  Each comprised small-business owners and managers who chose to voluntarily participate in a session designed to support their success.  That alone, sharing time with business owners and managers who were serious about their success, was enough to fire me up.  Yet, the real inspirational impact on me came from their openness to and hunger for new ideas and outside insights.  This trait is foundational to successful business people.

It’s been said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it.”  When we learn to bury our pride, reorganize our limits, and pursue the knowledge and support of others, we are on our way to a new level of thinking.  Matched with our own knowledge, skills and passion, a new level of potential is eminent.

I too drew upon the knowledge of others this week.  The sessions I conducted filled me with the knowledge of others.  As they posed questions, challenged my positions, and encouraged my delivery, their insights expanded my ability meet the challenge of my next audience.   In addition, I was treated to a presentation by Alecia Huck of Maverick and Company.  She reminded me that in marketing “everybody equals nobody” and “If people can’t remember where they parked their car, why do we expect them to remember details about us?”  While her presentation held much more content, these two points jumped out at me.  So much so, that I used them within 24 hours to support the content of my own presentations – with proper credit to Alecia.

Let others elevate your thinking.  And, do the same for them.  Speaking of other’s knowledge, we recently began our Small Biz Tele Series.  In these weekly calls, participants will learn from others about a variety of small business topics.  Check out our Listen Live link to hear “Merchant Services – Clearning up the credit card confusion.”

Last week I was invited to visit a small networking group. While I am a regular member of a couple networking groups, I often visit other groups to make new contacts and evaluate their value as potential additions to my personal network building efforts.

This group was like many, with its relatively small membership trying to figure out how to grow participation. Its format was fairly typical. After the standard around-the-table introductions and elevator pitches, we moved to the featured member’s 20-minute presentation. On this day, a financial advisor delivered a routine overview of company history, prowess, features, and benefits. She handed out a nice brochure, along with a list of her company’s services. She was professional in her delivery, appeared qualified in her knowledge base, and was pleasant in her demeanor.

The rest of us followed along through her handouts as she spoke. We nodded in agreement at her talking points. When she finished and invited questions, there were none. Well, except for mine. As I watched her presentation, I hoped for something to motivate me and other group members to either consider her services or to be motivated to tell others about her. Instead, I found myself thinking, “I’ve seen this presentation at least a dozen times before, just from others.”

I knew the presenter from earlier meetings at social events.  Our conversations told me that she genuinely cared about her customers and was passionate about her work.  So, hoping to provide an opportunity for her to tell the group what makes her and her company different from other financial advisors, I spoke up. “There are many others in your profession, what do you think sets you apart?” Her response, “When you work with my company, you get me and my personal commitment to your financial success.” I knew she would say that and most of you reading this post knew she would say that. Unfortunately, SAYING that to the group was not nearly as powerful as SHOWING that she really was interested in their success, especially since she just completed a 20-minute pitch of her company features and benefits.

She happened to be a financial services provider, but she could have easily been a mortgage banker, realtor, insurance broker, or any number of professional service providers, especially those faced with significant numbers of “competitors” in their market. She could have been most of us, who know that WE determine our product or service value.  Yet, we often present features and benefits when addressing a group, rather than delivering a message that reinforces our personal value.  People buy YOU.  Then they justify their action with your features and benefits.

The question I really wanted to ask the financial advisor…”If YOU are what sets your company apart, why did you spend your time selling your company’s features and benefits? Why not use the time to connect with me, to demonstrate your expertise, to give me immediate value, to lock in your message of commitment to my success?”

The Featured Business Presenter opportunity is often viewed as a stand up brochure or an expanded elevator speech. In truth, it offers a powerful opportunity to build relationship with networking group members. It should used to connect with their needs, deliver value, and drive leads. Approaching such an opportunity with objectives and a plan can mean the difference in just getting it over with and getting ahead.

I’ll be presenting a short seminar on this topic in the next couple weeks. If you want to learn more, visit www.presentingwithpurpose.com